Wine Blogs Just Aren’t that Interesting

Posted by Tom Wark on Jan 29, 2007

Last night I sat down in the studios of KRCB-FM for an interview with Michele Anna Jordan, host of Mouthful. My co-guest was JohnG of Quaffability. We were there to discuss the wine blogging phenomenon.

This was the fifth radio interview I’ve done in the past couple of weeks on the subject of wine blogs and a very interesting pattern has emerged: Nearly every interview moves past the issue of wine blogging into a wide ranging discussion of wine in general.

Michele had a number of very good questions on wine blogging…more than most interviewers. But in the end the discussion went toward Beaujolais, Kermit Lynch, high alcohol wine, wine and elitism and other topics that aren’t about wine blogging at all. The same pattern as in other interviews.

I know why this is. The topic of wine blogging is really no more interesting that the topic of how a wine magazine (or any magazine for that matter) gets published or how many readers a wine magazine has. After a while, after you explain the arcanities of how a blog is easy to publish, there is not much more meat on that bone and you start to turn to the real question: Why do you blog or Why do you read a blog? Once this question is on the table you can take it anywhere.

The point is, wine blogging and blogging in general isn’t that interesting as a topic. What’s really interesting is content, why one choose to write about a subject, and what that subject means to the writer and the reader.

By the way, Michele Anna Jordan is one of those folks who by her enthusiasm for food and wine and her prominence as a writer and personality in Sonoma County, has really come to help define the foodie and wine community in this important food and wine region. I’d been in her studio before with clients when they were on her show, but never interviewed myself. It was a treat. Her well of knowledge allows her to ask very good questions.